Monthly Archives: December 2014

Dutch review of 37 studies

Doing yoga may be a good way to protect against heart disease, particularly if you cannot do more vigorous exercise, research suggests.

A review in the Netherlands of 37 studies involving nearly 3,000 people found yoga was independently linked to a lowering of heart risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Yoga does not count towards the recommended physical activity that we should all do each week. Experts say it may still be beneficial.

“The benefits could be due to working the muscles and breathing, which can bring more oxygen into the body, leading to lower blood pressure”

Maureen Talbot
British Heart Foundation

Yoga is an ancient form of exercise that focuses on strength, flexibility and breathing to boost physical and mental wellbeing.

There are lots of different types of yoga – tantric, Hatha and Ashtanga to name a few – but most are not strenuous enough to count towards the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity the government says we should get each week to give our heart and lungs a workout.

Yoga does count as a muscle strengthening exercise – something the same guidelines say we should do on two or more days a week, every week.

Calming

Prof Myriam Hunink, from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, set out to investigate what effect, if any, yoga might have on heart health.

Compared with no exercise, yoga had significant benefits – it was linked to a lower risk of obesity, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol, the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology reports.

When pitched against other types of exercise, such as brisk walking or jogging, yoga was no better or worse based on the same measures of heart risk.

Prof Hunink said: “These results indicate that yoga is potentially very useful and in my view worth pursuing as a risk improvement practice.”

It is not clear why yoga might be beneficial, but experts say it could be down to its calming effect. Stress has been linked to heart disease and high blood pressure.

Maureen Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The benefits could be due to working the muscles and breathing, which can bring more oxygen into the body, leading to lower blood pressure.

“A larger study is recommended though to assess the effects of yoga more fully.”

She said the benefits of yoga on emotional health were well-established.

Date

Yogawest – Courses starting in Jan 2015

While most classes at Yogawest run on a drop-in basis, we also offer specialist courses which need to be booked in advance. These are usually 5 or 6 weeks in duration and offer an opportunity to learn with a group of fellow students.

Monday 2.00 – 3.15pm

In a session Jocasta teaches you about your baby’s development and offers practical ways to support it through play. She does this through body-based exploration, hands-on care and play-based activities, all within a safe setting. This 2 week course will provide a taster of the full course we are planning for the new year.

Teacher Training is coming to Yogawest in 2015

We’ve had several requests over the last couple of years asking about the possibility of training to be an Iyengar yoga teacher at Yogawest.

We have been working away behind the scenes to arrange this, and now have some exciting news…

Latest Information on Teacher Training at Yogawest

As many of you know, we have been in discussion with a senior teacher in recent months about setting up an Iyengar teacher training course at Yogawest.

There have been various hoops to jump through, but we are delighted to announce that we now have IY(UK) approval to proceed with the course.

And the really fantastic news is that Sheila Haswell has agreed to teach the first course. Sheila is a well known figure in the Iyengar world, running and teaching at Sarva in High Wycombe until recently. She is a wonderful teacher: compassionate, wise and a brilliant trainer. Although she will still be based up the M4, she has agreed to come to Yogawest regularly to run this course for us.

The course will start in 2015 (probably summer time, with some additional pre-course preparation dates in the New Year tbc) and run for approx 2 years towards the Introductory level exam in Summer/Autumn 2017.

What happens next?

Our next step is to confirm dates and costs and we will update this page when this is arranged.

We’d like to talk to you if you might be interested. Drop Diana an email and let her know. Please also ask her if you have any questions at this stage.

Please note: to train to be an Iyengar teacher you need to have 3 years of Iyengar classes under your belt, and your IY(UK) teacher will need to endorse you for training.

Further information about teacher training in the UK is on the IY(UK) website